Valerie or Tigerspots?
by dragontama9511
Summary: Valerie is a normal girl who is given the power to live half of her life as a human, half as a cat. But when the gift turns into a curse and tears her life apart, what will happen to her? Rate T just to be safe.
1. Allegiances and Prologue

**A/N: This is just an idea I thought of after I drew a picture of the clay slab mentioned in the story. It started out as just a picture of half of a cat face and half of a human face put together, and I ended up writing a short story. The Clans in this are based on the Clans when they lived in the forest, but with different names and different cats. I finally got around to actually spending time working on it. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own warriors, but I do own this story and the characters.**

Allegiances

LightClan

Leader: Brightstar – white she-cat with bright green-blue eyes

Deputy: Riverheart – blue tom with deep blue eyes

Medicine Cat: Eagleflight – beautiful young black and white dappled she-cat with amber eyes

Apprentice: Stonepaw

Warriors: Sunlight – young golden she-cat with green eyes

Troutfin – older grey tom with grey eyes

Wetfoot – blue tom with amber eyes

Duckwing – grey tom with dark green eyes

Apprentice: Puddlepaw

Lionfur – young golden she-cat with yellow eyes

Apprentice: Lillypadpaw

Sunsetsky – light orange she-cat with subtle blue eyes

Quickriver – blue tom with amber eyes

Mudpool – brown tabby tom with amber eyes

Apprentice: Frogpaw

Silverstripe – silver tabby she-cat with silver-grey eyes

Lightfur – golden she-cat with light green eyes

Apprentices: Frogpaw – silver tabby tom with dark green eyes

Lillypadpaw – small blue she-cat with blue eyes

Puddlepaw – silver tabby she-cat with grey eyes

Stonepaw – grey tom with grey eyes

Queens: Toadpuddle – grey she-cat with green eyes

Kits: Sandkit – light orange she-kit with dark green eyes

Goldenkit – golden she-kit with blue eyes

Fishkit – grey tomkit with grey eyes

Webbedkit – grey tomkit with green-blue eyes

Waterkit – grey she-kit with blue eyes

Elders:Leopardheart – yellow she-cat with blue-green eyes

Darkwater – dark tabby tom with dark blue-grey eyes

DarkClan

Leader: Shadowstar – dark tabby tom with grey eyes

Deputy: Ratclaw – tough gray tom with small grey eyes

AirClan

Leader: Skystar – white tom with blue eyes

Deputy: Cloudfur – fluffy white tom with blue eyes

StormClan

Leader: Thunderstar – smoky gray she-cat with cold grey eyes

Deputy: Snowstorm – strict white she-cat with grey eyes

Prologue

Valerie was walking through the mall, looking at the booths when one caught her eye. It was a fortune-teller's booth, but what caught her eye wasn't the vial of powder that would help you find your true love or the mirror that would supposedly bring good luck if you looked in it and said what you wanted seven times. It wasn't the lady in odd clothes with various good luck charm bracelets and necklaces, or her tarot cards that she said she would use to find your future. It was a small piece of clay. It was just a simple square slab of clay about an inch thick with a design on it. It was the sort of clay that had a design painted on it in liquid clay and then fired onto it, but there were two shades of paint. One of them fired to a red-orange, and the other turned out black. Valerie had learned about it in art class.

The design was a black jagged line. On one side was the face of a calico cat, and on the other was a red-haired girl. Valerie loved it instantly. She walked up to the booth and asked, "How much is this?" as she pointed to the clay.

"Usually, forty dollars," the old woman said, showing her teeth, or lack of. "But for you," she said, smiling, "it is only fifteen."

"Dollars?"

"Whatever you prefer." She sat down on a nearby bench to think. She had only been given twenty dollars. But she decided to buy it and spend the rest on a snack.

"I'll take it," she said at last.

"Good. It fits you."

"What?" But the woman just smiled and placed it in a small paper bag, placing wrapping paper carefully around it to protect it. She handed it to Valerie, saying, "Thank you so much for buying it."

That night, Valerie placed it on the table by her bed before going to sleep. She had an odd dream. It was of the clay figure, but now it was a little different, and she understood the meaning for the first time. The girl had two lives and couldn't choose one, and it was like her life was split by a sharp, jagged line. And then a mirror appeared by the clay. Valerie looked in it and saw her face, and realized that it was like the girl on the clay slab. Then her face transformed into a cat's face, and the cat looked like the one on the clay slab. Then the old woman appeared. She asked, "Are you sure?" smiling serenely.

"For what?" Valerie asked many times. But the woman never answered. "Fine, I'm sure." And the woman became a blue cat that smiled at her, just like the old woman. "I will see you again, quite soon, I think."


	2. Part 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors, but I own this story and its characters.**

Ch. 1

Valerie woke up and stretched out her front paws. And then she saw the fur. One paw was red, the other was white. She yowled. She looked at herself and realized what had happened. She was the girl on the clay slab. She was the cat on the clay slab. And like the girl that was her, her life was split. She ran over to a river. Reflected in the swiftly flowing water was her feline face. It was identical to the clay slab.

"Hey!" Suddenly, she was tackled by another cat. In a flurry of blue-grey fur, she wrestled with the cat. It was stronger than she was, but she was smarter. She bit hard and dug her claws into his pelt. He screeched loud enough to wake the dead, but she hung on. She wasn't afraid to hurt him. He had attacked her. She was defending herself. She finally let go, and he bolted into the forest. She sat and began grooming her soft fur. It was mostly white with some red and black, like a calico. She was a calico, like the cat on the clay slab. But then again, she _was_ the cat on the clay slab. She suddenly heard a "Hey!" She turned around to see a white female cat with blue-green eyes. "Can I talk to you?"

"You are."

"Oh. Well then, are you a loner?"

"A what?"

"So you don't live anywhere?"

"Not now. I used to live with humans."

"With what?"

"The tall creatures that only have hair on their heads and walk on two legs even though they have four?"

"Oh, you mean twolegs! You were a kittypet, then. A house cat."

"Not exactly."

"So would you like to join my Clan? We watch out for each other, and if you have kits or get old, you will be taken care of."

"Sure."

"Follow me. My Clan is LightClan. I am Brightstar." She led Valerie into the forest. There was a stream, and around it were cats. "This is most of my Clan. Now follow me." She led Valerie onto a tall rock. "Let every cat able to catch their own prey gather beneath the Cliff for a Clan meeting!" the cat shouted.

"A loner who wants to join our Clan managed to injure Riverheart badly, and has proved that she is strong and clever. From this day until you become a warrior, you will be known as Tigerpaw, in honor of you black and orange fur, the same color as the cats of the mighty TigerClan. Sunsetsky, you are ready to have an apprentice; you shall mentor Tigerpaw."

"Tigerpaw! Tigerpaw!" the cats chanted.

"Sandkit, Goldenkit, you are old enough to become apprentices. From this day until you receive your warrior names, you will be known as Sandpaw and Goldenpaw. Quickriver, you trained Lionfur well, and you are ready for another apprentice. You will mentor Sandpaw. Silverstripe, you are young, but you are ready for an apprentice. You will train Goldenpaw."

"Sandpaw! Goldenpaw!" The cats dispersed once Brightstar had flicked her tail, and a light orange cat with blue eyes walked up to me. "I'm Sunsetsky, and first, I will show you around camp." She led Tigerpaw over to one of the caves in the rock. "This is the medicine cat's den. The current medicine cat is Eagleflight, and Stonepaw is her apprentice. They are gathering herbs right now, so I'll introduce you later.

"This is the elders den," she said as she pointed to a corner sheltered by a small cliff.

"Hello, I'm Leopardheart, and this is Darkwater," an old she cat said. She had light yellow fur with unusual brown spots. Darkwater was an old dark tabby tom with deep blue-grey eyes.

"Come on," Sunsetsky said, leading the young she-cat over to a hollow log. "This is the warrior's den, and at the other end is the apprentice den. The warriors sleep away from the water, where it is more comfortable. These are Wetfoot and Troutfin, two of our senior warriors." The toms just nodded to acknowledge Tigerpaw. One of them was grey with grey eyes, and he was the older one. The younger one was blue with amber eyes.

"Come on," Sunsetsky said. "Eagleflight's back." The two she-cats ran over to the medicine cat den. "This is Tigerpaw, Eagleflight. She was a loner, but she joined our Clan today."

"Welcome to LightClan, Tigerpaw!" the medicine cat said. Her fur was dappled black and white, and her eyes were amber. She looked a lot like a young eagle. "This is Stonepaw," she said, nodding at a young grey tom with grey eyes. He just nodded, like the older warriors had done. He seemed friendly, but shy, and he was probably busy.

Once they were back in the camp, Sunsetsky said, "Remember Riverheart, the cat you hurt? He's the deputy. He mostly just organizes patrols and hunts. He loves to hunt and fight. And this is what we call the fresh-kill pile."

Throughout the rest of the day, Tigerpaw mostly just listened to the elders' stories with the kits, Fishkit, Webbedkit, and Waterkit. That night she fell asleep next to the other apprentices.


	3. Part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors, but I do own this story and its characters.**

Ch. 2

In Tigerpaw's dreams, she saw the blue she-cat. "Can I turn back into a human?" she asked the blue cat.

"Sorry, but it must be so."

"What?"

She woke up in her familiar human bed. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and almost forgot her schedule in the morning. She grabbed her cell phone and checked the calendar. It was the day after her last day as a human. Maybe she had dreamed it all. But them she remembered the fight with Riverheart. That had been real. She had gotten hurt, which doesn't happen in dreams.

Valerie got ready for school as usual and ate breakfast. She was so tired that she fell asleep in math class. Her math teacher was mean to the bad kids, but liked the good ones, and Valerie was one of his favorites. "Did you get enough sleep last night?" he asked her.

"I don't think so. I can't remember it that well, but I think it took me hours to get to sleep, and then I kept waking up in the middle of the night."

He clucked his tongue sadly. He had a habit of clucking his tongue at random moments. It usually didn't mean anything except that he was rather bored with something. He wrote a note on his pad of sticky notes and pulled it off. "You can go home sick," he said, handing her the note. She hurried down the hall to the office.

Her mother took her home and told her to relax. She fell asleep quickly once she was in her bed in her room in her house. She was glad she was somewhere familiar. She loved the forest, but loved her human life better. She woke up at about seven and ate dinner with her family. Then she went to bed. When she woke up, she was Tigerpaw. _Great,_ she thought. Sunsetsky took her on a tour of LightClan and taught her how to catch a fish. She was a natural. The next few weeks she survived as a human by doing homework at every opportunity and sleeping as much as she could. As a cat, she learned how to hunt and fight and be a warrior. Then on her fifth week of being a cat-person, Brightstar said one evening, "Let every cat able to catch their own prey gather beneath the Cliff for a Clan meeting!" Once everyone was organized, the white she-cat said, "Tigerpaw has studied for over a moon to learn your code, StarClan. She has learned the skills needed by a warrior and has proved her strength and intelligence many times. I ask you to look down on her as a warrior. By the power StarClan has given you, from this day forward, you will be known as Tigerspots."

"Tigerspots! Tigerspots! Tigerspots!" She sat proudly in front of the Clan on the Cliff. Sunsetsky was proud of her. "We will share a meal and then share tongues, and then Tigerspots will sit a vigil, guarding the camp."

One day, Valerie's mother said to her, "What's gotten into you lately? You've been sleeping too much, doing your homework immediately after school. . ."

"I've been relaxing, not sleeping."

"Okay." She knew she couldn't live like this. Like on the slab, her life was torn. She would have to give up one of her lives. But which one?

A week later, Valerie was riding home from school when her mother's car fell into the river. She died, but her mother and little brothers survived. Suddenly, she was Tigerspots. She had became a warrior about a week ago, and she was on a hunting patrol when she was killed in a fight with a dog. She lived in both Heaven and Silverpelt, as both Valerie and Tigerspots.


End file.
